Let me start off by saying, "Cancer is the best thing to ever happen to me".
Not something you hear everyday, but for me, its the truth. Cancer changed my life, it changed my families life, and in some little way it has changed the life of the people who followed this blog. I went on the most harrowing, crazy, scary adventure with my closest family and friends. I tested my ability, I stared down the barrel into death, I acknowledged it was there but did not heed its call. My family, girlfriend at the time, and friends endured the hardest few months of mine, and perhaps their lives. You learn what true human resolve is. You meet people you never thought you would meet, and lie in operating theatre's with machinery that will completely intimidate and confuse you. You get put to sleep with the sole intention of waking up after the surgeons work is done. You go to bed fighting, and you wake up fighting, pause and then catch your breath... and once the pain and aches of surgery have subsided, you get ready for the next bout, the next obstacle that will inevitably be placed in front of you.
You learn to accept things, you learn to listen, to appreciate, to comprehend what life really means. I am 25 years old, I do not confess to knowing everything, but I sure know alot more about life now than I knew 2 years ago. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I would be here, 4 brain operations and 5 rather sizable scars later. Cancer is random, it has no means of traceability or predictability. The only thing you can do when faced with this, is to fight, and for some people the fight is too much, not for their lack of trying, purely because the cancer that they had was too much and too aggressive. There are cancers out there that, if you go through mortality rates and statistics, will literally numb your senses and affect you to your very core because you will realize that these cancers happen to normal people, me, a friend, anyone. Whether youre that person who lies in bed at night with the feeling that your body isnt quite acting or performing in the way it should, or being the care giver for someone who is battling this disease, or, more importantly, you are fighting this disease, you realize that at some stage you need to action a response.
People always throw me a questionably strange glance when I mention to them that cancer changed my life for the better, and you can only start to understand what I mean when I tell you how it did so. Before cancer I took things for granted, I was headed down a very different road to the one I am on now. I didnt appreciate things, I always looked for the next best thing... and sadly you only realise what you had, once you no longer possess it or it is being threatened from you. I did that a lot, but then I was diagnosed and like a wave of realization, I realized what I was here for. There are foundations out there that are striving to cure cancer. There is so much international interest in research into cancer, and after speaking to Dr Rick Guyer, Dr Stephan Joubert and a few other doctors, you come to realise that although the amount is substantial, it isnt big enough. The impetus isnt enough.
Dr Rick Guyer, Co-founder of the Texas Back Institute and Director of their Spine Fellowship Program, got in touch with me through my blog. Dr Guyer has been down a very similar road, albeit he was a spectator to it. His son Jeff Guyer, 30, battled a very rare cancer known as a sarcoma. Jeff had a year long battle with the sarcoma, and on the 6 June 2011, Jeff answered to another call, but not before leaving behind a legacy. He left behind something that will hopefully be here long after we are all gone, or perhaps through it will no longer need to exist. Jeff started a foundation whilst battling his cancer, that shows his outright determination and strength, that while all of us are fit and healthy, Jeff who was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation still had the time and commitment to start a foundation that in its first year raised $200,000 USD.
I do not wish cancer upon anyone, no one deserves the devastating effects it can have on you and those around you, but it does teach some lessons that I would otherwise not have learnt. Hopefully through funds and charities like Jeff's, where the funds go purely to cancer research, sarcoma's and cytoma's and the like will become diseases of the past. Current medical research is close to unlocking genome cures, and there are new and improved methods of chemotherapy, but those will only be unlocked through research. Jeff's fund and funds the world over give their contributions to a bigger research fund that is close to finding the cure. It will only be achieved through collaboration and commitment.
My purpose for this blog is the same as it has always been, just the scope of it has changed. It has become something bigger, it has become a portal to do good and achieve things that I never thought I would get involved in. On Monday I am having a conversation with Dr Guyer as to how I can help in any way, shape or form. I'm going down the road less traveled, the road will have its up's and down's, it will be scary because once again I will have to reflect on my journey through cancer in order to help others. The point of this post is to get ideas, I would really appreciate ideas as to how I can start something that would generate awareness and funds, that could either go viral or be achievable on a very big scale. Dr Guyer, and the rest of his family have started initiatives like Spinspiration, where through cycling events and partaking in cycling events such as The Cape Argus where 60 people rode under the "Cycling against Sarcoma" banner, they managed to generate funds that will go towards cancer research.
I'm stepping into a new world with this, people. I want to help where I can, but I am only one man, but I truly believe that a change in thinking comes from one person who can affect many. I'm just looking for ideas... so if you have some crazy or conservative idea, I want to hear them all. You can send on to my email brad_woodhouse@mac.com, or leave a comment under this post.
I will let you all know the feedback from my conversation on Monday.
Here is Jeff's blog, read it if you want to read about someone far braver and courageous than we all are. http://www.jeffsfightwithcancer.blogspot.co.uk/
The link below is the link to Jeff's fund. Please give it a look.
https://give.massgeneral.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=1484
All the best for the weekend ahead, change isnt instantaneous or started by many at once... it starts when there is a shift in mindset by each and every one of us.
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